NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Many patients with chronic
headaches are often overly sensitive to touch and ordinary
activities like rubbing the head or combing the hair cause
pain, according to findings from the American Migraine
Prevalence and Prevention Study.

This problem, technically referred to as "cutaneous
allodynia," is nearly twice as common among patients with
migraines as among those with other types of headache.

As reported in the journal Neurology, Dr. Marcelo E. Bigal,
at Merck Research Laboratories in Whitehouse Station, New
Jersey, and his group analyzed questionnaires completed by
nearly 17,000 headache sufferers.

Up to 69 percent of migraine patients had cutaneous
allodynia, the results indicate, compared with just 37 percent
of patients with other types of chronic headache. Severe
allodynia was noted in 12 to 29 percent of migraine patients,
but in no more than 6 percent of patients with other types of
headache.

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"Cutaneous allodynia appears to map onto migraine biology
and to the migraine spectrum," the authors note.

In all headache types, allodynia was more common among
women, and severity was associated with symptoms of depression.
In migraine patients, allodynia was associated with high attack
frequency, long disease duration, obesity and younger age.

In a journal press release, Bigal suggests that cutaneous
allodynia "may be a risk factor for migraine progression, where
individuals have migraines on more days than not."

"It may be," he continues, "that individuals with allodynia
should be more aggressively treated in order to prevent
migraine progression, as well as to decrease this sensitivity
on the skin."